ASCD, which turns 50 this year, in some ways bears little resemblance to the fledgling organization launched in 1943. Today, membership is counted by the thousands (141,000, at last count), not the hundreds. The Association's array of products and services—such as publications and professional development opportunities—has grown dramatically. And ASCD has established 53 American and nine international affiliates in Europe, the Caribbean, Canada, and the Far East.
Yet in its structure as an inclusive organization, as well as in some of its core values, ASCD has stayed close to its roots. To commemorate the Association's 50th anniversary, ASCD Update asked some longtime members about what distinguishes ASCD. What follows summarizes their remarks.
One unique quality the Association offers is its inclusiveness, members say. Unlike other professional associations for educators, ASCD is not limited to a specific job role or subject area. While initially created as a home for curriculum developers and supervisors—as the name implies—ASCD from the beginning welcomed educators from all parts of the professional spectrum. Today, it offers a forum for everyone in the field—from education professors to kindergarten teachers, from curriculum specialists to high school principals, from school board members to student teachers—to come together and examine new ideas in education.
"It's a unifying group," says Past President Alice Miel (1953–54). ASCD is unique as "a national organization that cuts across all positions and levels" in the field, she says.
Because of its diverse membership, ASCD offers its members opportunities for leadership unlike those to be found in other organizations, says Past President Phil Robinson (1984–85). Serving as ASCD president while a practicing principal allowed him to work closely with educators from a wide variety of job roles, he says—giving him insight into the perspectives of educators at all levels.
Concern for Children
If in diversity ASCD has found strength, what has held ASCD's diverse members together? Longtime ASCD members agree that shared values about children and schooling have been the common thread linking everyone together.
ASCD members have been united by their commitment to better schools, their support for the rights of minorities, and their concern for the welfare of children and teachers, says Past President William Van Til (1961–62). Through the years, ASCD members have worked to "try to meet the needs of learners, throw light on social realities, and clarify democratic values," he says. Other central ASCD values include balance in the curriculum and support for effective leadership practices, he adds.
"ASCD has given us a focus for our efforts [to create] better schools in a better society," Van Til says. "ASCD has been a rallying point, a place where you could express your vision and hope." Providing this focus has been the "great and relatively unique contribution ASCD could make," he says.
Other longtime members emphasize that ASCD has never wavered in its commitment to the heart of education—teaching and learning. At ASCD, curriculum and instruction have always been the focus of attention; the Association has avoided being distracted by secondary issues such as the economics and politics of schooling, they say. And ASCD members have pursued what's best for students and schools—not their own interests. ASCD's emphasis has always been "on teaching and learning—what we do for children. It wasn't involved in getting more pay for teachers and administrators," says Past President Elizabeth Randolph (1977–78). "ASCD is the only professional organization that is not also a kind of union," agrees Thomas Sergiovanni of Trinity University, a member since the 1960s.
ASCD "remains an `idea' group," says Past President Glenys Unruh (1974–75). ASCD has had three main focus areas, she says: improving the quality of curriculum and teaching, cultivating leadership, and promoting exemplary programs.
"The heart of the organization is ideas," Sergiovanni says. The emphasis has been "on providing ideas, advancing and sharing knowledge" through "frank exchanges," he says.
These exchanges occur in a variety of places: in the pages of ASCD's respected journal, Educational Leadership; at ASCD's Annual Conference and professional development institutes; and in other locales.
ASCD has been influential in informing members about trends in education such as thinking skills, TESA, Madeline Hunter's ideas, early childhood education, and countless others, says Stuart Rankin, a longtime member who spent 37 years with the Detroit public schools. "I think our influence has been to promote the best practices, or at least the current practices, to the people who work in American education," he says. "We have advanced the understanding of a lot of members."
Values in Action
Throughout its existence, ASCD has done more than talk about its values, members say; it has acted on them. The Association has translated its concern for values such as diversity and academic freedom into action aimed at realizing those values, both within the Association and in the field of education.
For example, ASCD has taken "aggressive steps" to promote participation by minority members, says Past President O.L. Davis, Jr. (1982–83). Early on, ASCD began to appoint minority members to unfinished terms, as part of its effort to increase diversity in leadership positions, says Robinson. The Association went beyond lip service to promote diversity "in substance as well as in form," he says.
When African-American educator Alvin Loving was elected president of ASCD in 1971, it showed ASCD to be serious about opportunities for minority leadership, says Randolph. "ASCD was really in the vanguard there," compared to other education associations, she says. ASCD has since had other minority officers and continues to take the issue of diversity seriously, she adds.
ASCD has also stood up for equal rights for minorities in other ways. In its earliest years, ASCD passed resolutions against segregation "well in advance of many other education organizations," says Van Til. "For years and years, we would not meet [in cities] where they didn't have desegregated facilities," Davis notes. "We were one of the first organizations to get choosy about where we met for reasons like that," adds Miel.
ASCD has also acted boldly to protect academic freedom, longtime members say. During the McCarthy era, for example, ASCD's Executive Council formed a commission to examine forces affecting American education, including the threat of censorship posed by McCarthy's influence. The 1953 Yearbook took a strong stand against McCarthyism in education, thereby drawing the ire of repressive forces. The Yearbook was "attacked vigorously by right-wing forces," says Van Til, the Yearbook's editor. Although libel suits were threatened, ASCD stood firm in its defense of academic freedom, he says.
ASCD has long been associated with a more progressive and humanistic approach to curriculum, instruction, and supervision, say longtime members—even when these perspectives weren't widely popular. These perspectives have influenced ASCD's position on such matters as supervision (ASCD supports a collegial approach) and student learning (ASCD advocates more self-directed learning and urges that the curriculum be more relevant). The 1962 yearbook, Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming: A New Focus for Education, with contributions by Carl Rogers, Art Combs, Abraham Maslow, and Earl Kelley, had a tremendous influence on education theorists at the time. Its emphasis on preparing students to have effective human relationships to lead fulfilling lives provided a counterpoint to a nation obsessed with using schools to beat the Russians. "It reminded the country after Sputnik that education was more than the New Math or putting a man on the moon," says Rankin.
The Importance of People
Although ASCD has a well-deserved reputation for promoting educational innovation, longtime members also stress ASCD as a forum for cultivating personal friendships. Especially during ASCD's earlier years, members rubbed elbows with education's titans at ASCD conferences or just chatted with educators from other areas.
Through ASCD, "I met the greatest people in the world," says Past President Larry Finkel (1983–84). "I learned more from sitting around coffee tables with these people than I ever could have learned from a book."
"To me, the greatest value of ASCD, period, is the people," adds Past President Delmo Della-Dora (1975–76). "ASCD brings together people with exciting ideas in a spirit of openness and collegiality."
ASCD aims to build on its strengths—such as its shared values and its knack for bringing people together—as it prepares for the next 50 years. Its recently formed Strategic Planning Commission is developing a plan to chart the Association's course. As it plans for the future, the Association will be reflecting on its 50-year history to draw lessons—and inspiration—from the past. That seems natural, as providing inspiration to educators is what ASCD has always done best.
ASCD's Birth
ASCD's Birth
How did ASCD come to be? In 1943, the NEA's Department of Supervisors and Directors of Instruction merged with the independent Society for Curriculum Study. The new organization—which remained part of the NEA family of organizations but was independent as to programs and policies—was initially called the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development. In 1945, the name was changed to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Because of wartime travel restrictions, no conferences were held from 1943 until 1946; the work of the organization was carried out by meetings of the Board of Directors and by mail votes. ASCD's first Annual Conference was held in St. Louis in March 1946.
Source: ASCD in Retrospect.